Racer
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2006
- Messages
- 1,594
- Location
- Colorado Springs, Colorado USA
- Aircraft
- Air Command CLT N7512X
I have heard the strangest sound in a set of rotor blades on a friends Xenon Gyro, The blades are I believe 30' long and they appear to be extruded because there are no seams in them anywhere whatsoever.
I am not exactly sure how to describe the sound but I will do my best.
They have a creaking sound in them that sounds much like an old door that the hinges need to be oiled. they also have a faint popping sound and a small rattle sound in them where something inside sounds like it is loose and rolling around. The sound seems to be coming from the center of the blade but hard to be certain of that because sound travels in a hollow tube. One blade seems to be noisier than the other one but they both do it.
It does not take much to make them do it either, tie one blade down and a gentle breeze will move the blades enough to get them creaking like the old door sound that you hear in the movies.
I have inspected the Rotor head and pre rotator 100% and could find no problems whatsoever. I re-torqued the blades to the hub bar according to manufacturer specs and still no improvement. I inspected both rotor blades thoroughly and found no signs of damage on them at all, they looked perfect.
The owner says he has noticed this for a while but it seems to be getting much worse as time goes on.
These blades were bought less than 3 months ago from Xenon and have less than 40 hours on them.
The aircraft has been grounded until we can find out what these strange sounds are. if this is something normal and nothing to worry about fine but this just not seem normal at all to me.
Somebody please help us find out what is going on here because this one has me stumped. :noidea:
I am not exactly sure how to describe the sound but I will do my best.
They have a creaking sound in them that sounds much like an old door that the hinges need to be oiled. they also have a faint popping sound and a small rattle sound in them where something inside sounds like it is loose and rolling around. The sound seems to be coming from the center of the blade but hard to be certain of that because sound travels in a hollow tube. One blade seems to be noisier than the other one but they both do it.
It does not take much to make them do it either, tie one blade down and a gentle breeze will move the blades enough to get them creaking like the old door sound that you hear in the movies.
I have inspected the Rotor head and pre rotator 100% and could find no problems whatsoever. I re-torqued the blades to the hub bar according to manufacturer specs and still no improvement. I inspected both rotor blades thoroughly and found no signs of damage on them at all, they looked perfect.
The owner says he has noticed this for a while but it seems to be getting much worse as time goes on.
These blades were bought less than 3 months ago from Xenon and have less than 40 hours on them.
The aircraft has been grounded until we can find out what these strange sounds are. if this is something normal and nothing to worry about fine but this just not seem normal at all to me.
Somebody please help us find out what is going on here because this one has me stumped. :noidea: